A letter mailed this month informing families living in federally financed hotel rooms or travel trailers that their housing aid will run out Friday fails to state that FEMA may extend the assistance or help them secure other resources if they request it, an agency official said Wednesday.

Gail Tate, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the New Orleans City Council's Recovery Committee that if residents still displaced because of Hurricanes Katrina or Rita can show progress toward obtaining permanent housing, the agency, along with the Louisiana Recovery Authority, will help them acquire rental vouchers, utility and food assistance, or other aid.

Trailer dwellers who find themselves days or weeks from getting back into their permanent homes could be allowed to stay in the structures until move-in day, Tate said, adding that all decisions will be made based on the specific cases.

"If they get the letter and they think that they need more time, they need to call us, " she said. "We're not going to put anyone out on the streets."

About 3,000 households displaced by the 2005 storms still live in travel trailers statewide, Tate said. In New Orleans, the total is 927 families, down from a high of about 23,000 households shortly after Katrina, she said.

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, the only city official at Wednesday's meeting, praised Tate and the LRA's Amanda Guma for their agencies' efforts to ease yet another transition for wary hurricane victims.

But she also lambasted FEMA's decision not to describe in its letter the potential help available to residents, instead giving the impression that tow trucks will roll across Louisiana on Friday, hauling away travel trailers and effectively evicting their inhabitants.

Tate said any allowances granted by FEMA don't amount to an "extension" of an emergency housing assistance program that runs out of money today.

Asked by Willard-Lewis whether the state asked FEMA to push back the housing program deadline, Guma said officials "have requested an extension of the deadline on several occasions. We have never received a formal response."

FEMA spokesman Andrew Thomas said late Wednesday that he was unaware of any such pleas since his agency granted the state's request to extend the most previous deadline of Feb. 28.

Residents facing the Friday deadline can call FEMA at 888.294.2822 or 800.621.3362.

Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.